Crowd at Uxbridge hearing slams asphalt plant

A standing-room-only crowd packed Lower Town Hall Wednesday night for a special permit hearing before the Planning Board on a proposed asphalt plant at 586 Quaker Highway.

The board closed the hearing after three hours, saying it would make a decision on the controversial project within 30 days.

Opponents said the plant would harm the health, environment and quality of life in the community, with potentially toxic chemicals, dust and odors emitted into the air less than a mile from the new high school.

The crowd of more than 60 people, which spilled into the hallway, occasionally erupted with shouts accusing the Planning Board chairman of not listening respectfully to residents who opposed the plant.

The proposal by Evergreen Development of Medway benefited from what town officials call a scrivener's error: A 1995 zoning bylaw amendment prohibiting asphalt plants, approved at town meeting, never made it into the books. And a zoning bylaw recodification in 2008 and amendments in 2011 defining manufacturing and prohibited uses omitted any reference to asphalt plants.

The net effect of these actions, Town Counsel Patrick J. Costello said, is that the town does not prohibit asphalt plants.

Joseph Leonardo, Planning Board chairman, said the hearing would focus on the merits of the proposal, not on historical bylaw amendments.

“To dwell on this issue of what was done in 1995 is counterproductive,” he said. The board has to deal with the bylaws adopted in November 2011, he said.

Representing the applicant, Don DeCristofaro, an air quality meteorologist and consultant, said the state Department of Environmental Protection approved an air quality plan in November, which contained rigid requirements on emission controls and operations.

He said the projected ground levels of pollutants, including byproducts of benzene, formaldehyde, cadmium and arsenic, were far less than what one would be exposed to from cars passing by on the highway.

“In summary, the proposed facility will not add any chemicals to the environment that will be emitted to the air,” Mr. DeCristofaro said.

But opponents such as Dr. David Tapscott, a pediatrician at Tri-River Family Health Center, said the state standards were from 1990 and hundreds of studies since then have demonstrated health impacts, including cardiovascular disease, chronic pulmonary disease, lung cancer and childhood leukemia, among others.

“This is a déjÀ vu. We went through this in 1995. It was deemed to be unhealthy for the town of Uxbridge,” Dr. Tapscott said. The town meeting action barring asphalt plants that year came after a plant was proposed for Quaker Highway. Though the prohibition came too late to block the plant that had been proposed, selectmen in 1996 denied the plant a building permit.

“What goes into the air… even under the best management practices, there will be health effects from this. There is no safe level for these particulate matters,” Dr. Tapscott said. “You're exposing people on a daily basis to toxic chemicals. Pure and simple.”

Kevin Gallo, whose wife, Dr. Jennifer Gallo, organized an online petition with more than 300 signatures opposing the proposed plant, said, “I don't want my town high school to be known as 'asphalt high' by neighboring communities (because of proximity to the plant). I don't want the Spartans to be known as the Fumes.”

Jane Keegan, a School Committee member speaking on her own behalf, echoed concerns that town revenue would suffer if people fled the high school through school choice because of its proximity to the plant.

Steven Bevilacqua, project owner for Evergreen Development, said, “The last thing we want to do is pollute. I'm going to have my son working there. It's got to be clean, safe and neat.”

An Uxbridge resident who owns a paving business spoke on behalf of Mr. Bevilacqua's former plant in Bellingham: “His facility was by far the cleanest and well-maintained.”

Several residents expressed concern about noise from the plant and from trucks coming and going and loading.

Doug Sheadel, consulting sound engineer with Modeling Specialties of Westford, said noise from the plant and trucks would be well within state Department of Environmental Protection criteria.

Mr. Bevilacqua said the proposed plant is a $4 million project that would bring in $64,000 a year to the town in tax revenue.